Legitimate program becomes trojan downloader

By hacking into the website of popular Windows download manager FlashGet, cybercriminals have managed to turn the software into a trojan-downloader.

Like many programs, FlashGet regularly connects to its developer's website to see if there are any updates to be installed. However, attackers have managed to hack into the FlashGet website and substitute an 'updated' version of one of the program's configuration files for a genuine update. The rogue configuration file caused a trojan to be downloaded when the program was launched. The hackers even managed to host the trojan itself on the developer's website, thus making the altered configuration file look less suspicious.

It is believed that the program worked as a trojan downloader for about ten days, after which the problem was fixed and the configuration file was reset to its original state. However, as Kaspersky's Aleks Gostev warns, any piece of malware that is able to change this file can still turn the legitimate program into a trojan-downloader. To make matters worse, FlashGet is usually treated as a trusted application; hence network activity caused by the application is unlikely to be flagged as suspicious.

We see a lot of spam in the VBSpam test lab, and we also see how well such emails are being blocked by email security products. Worryingly, it is often the emails with a malicious attachment or a phishing link that are most likely to be missed.

Have you analysed a new online threat? Do you know a new way to defend against such threats? Are you tasked with securing systems and fending off attacks? The call for papers for VB2019 is now open and we want to hear from you!

Today, we publish a VB2018 paper by Google researcher Maddie Stone in which she looks at one of the most interesting anti-analysis native libraries in the Android ecosystem. We also release the recording of Maddie's presentation.

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